Titaniumtastic…

Titaniumtastic…

Every so often a bit of kit comes along that changes everything in your outdoors world… The King titanium tyre levers my buddy at my local bikeshop gave me the other day are not such a piece of kit… this little nugget of titanium goodness however most definitely is.

I’m determined to get my total camping load on my bike for a month away below 10kg if I can. No idea if that’s reasonable, as I’ll still want some basic tools and bike spares, not to mention camera.. and a little bit of comfort for a month long trip, so we’ll just have to wait and see. So.. for this next trip don’t want to carry my Primus Himalaya multifuel stove and fuel bottle. Don’t want to be a slave to finding gas canisters for my MSR PocketRocket, and don’t want to be a slave to finding meths for a Trangia either.. I’ve decided I’m happy with cold food and whatever I can find at food stalls along the way, but I must be able to have a fresh brew before hitting the road in the mornings so I treated myself to a titanium ‘Pocket Stove’ from Backpacking Light. I’ve just been playing with it and I have to say I’m really (really really) excited about it.. in part simply because it is such a wicked little bit of design. Most of the time I’ll use it as a woodburner but a Trangia burner will also slot inside perfectly (as will most homemade ‘coke can’ burners), and it can burn hexamine tabs too though that is probably irrelevant when travelling by bike for more than a few days..

here it is in component form with my MSR titanium kettle (0.85l cap.)for comparison.. just 5 pieces from left to right.. back plate, front plate, a pair of sides and a baseplate that slot together quickly to form the stove. The whole thing comes in a nifty little tin, with the stove weight being just 56g, doubled by the tin that also has room in it for carrying extras like your firesteel and some tinderpaper for ex.

here it is assembled with the extra titanium trivet sitting across the top. Worth getting, it’s also a slot together thing that weighs bugger-all.

a boil underway, fuelled with twigs from the garden. I had no issues getting the thing burning well.

I like my coffee in large volumes, especially when cycling, so I had to do a realistic test.. which meant filling the kettle to around 0.7l, a decent mugful. It reached a boil in about 10mins, which of course is not fast by the standards of a more conventional backpacking stove but I like those quiet moments by my tent in the mornings before packing my bike and hitting the road so I have no issue with the time. No doubt it’ll be a heap quicker if using a Trangia burner. So.. not only ideal for a brew it’s also going to be great for making some noodles, soup that kind of stuff. Really excited about this little widget :-)